Stomping Ground

With the promise of a cool dry day just one month into Summer what better place to visit than Smiths Beach.  With the sun hitting the walls of the zawn early in the morning it is not a place to go to on a hot day, that plus the fact that it has been a staggering eighteen months since I last climbed here made it the perfect choice for a quick morning session with Howsie:

I kicked things off jumping on the crag classic, which is also the first line to fall at this crag.  The rock was a damp.  Maybe from the swell, surely not the small amount of rain we had yesterday morning?  That would have dried by now but the rock didn’t have that salty feeling when it has been hit by spray.  It was all a bit irrelevant because as I made my way to the final slopey diagonal crack I heard Howsie say it’s going to start to rain:

It came down hard and the rock, gear and rope were all sopping wet.  Both Howsie and I were a bit shell shocked as to how full on the first climb had felt.  While we could have blamed the rain we knew that wasn’t entirely it, so we dialled back the grade to make sure we could survive this session with some dignity.  The good news was that the bank of rain was passing us over, as we made our way to Murphy’s Boulder out of the zawn and on the seaward side:

While the rock was wet the lines looked more relaxed and we picked off Over Extended and Murphy’s Scramble.  Both lines were really enjoyable but still had that Smiths Beach seriousness about them.  Looking at the guide I wondered what drugs Craig and I may have been on when we graded them.  So we climbed them with care and then passed on the option of the inviting open project in the face comprising a wrinkled curving crack, with no obvious gear:

With the rain having moved on and the sun hitting Harbour Wall each time the clouds parted, the rock felt better.  Still damp but not wet and starting to dry up, so Howsie set off up The Drunken Sailor.  It looked like he was going to climb the wide crack just like Kym likes, grovel style.  However after looking like he would disappear from sight he popped back out and climbed it without getting sucked in again:

The reason for his one disappearance was the need to place a bomber hex deep in the recess of the crack.  I was only just able to reach it, despite climbing the route as Kym had taught me too.  The first time I hit this line Kym made a “strong” recommendation/suggestion that for full value you need to get into the crack and worm your way up in very traditional style.  Howsie couldn’t help from laughing as I inched my way up with what could definitely not be called style:

We then popped over into the smaller of the two zawns, a wall on which Howsie has only done one route before.  So he plumped for what looked to be the driest and most likely line to have good protection.  Deceptive Looks was a good choice, enough spice to make it real but with also with great holds in-between the nervous bits.  The only issue with Smiths Beach is that the grainy rock at times makes you wonder just how brittle the holds might be:

There was time to squeeze one more line in, so I offered the pointy end over.  Partly as I had climbed all the lines here before but also Howsie was climbing with more confidence today and I didn’t feel the need to push myself.  That is my excuse and I’m sticking to it.  Sandy Sunday was a perfect choice, climbed in the style Craig had intended with no venturing into the chimney just to its right:

I think it is fair to say that while we walked in with confidence we walked out feeling a little less so.  We had fun on the lines we picked but they all had that slightly serious feel to them, there was an issue with trusting the rock at times and also some of the gear (but not all).  Smiths Beach certainly packs a punch and today we were on the receiving end.  Despite it being an old stomping ground I feel the need to start to revisit this place more often to get my head back in the game: